Just curious about how some people feel about using strategy guides while going through an RPG. For me I dislike it a lot I think part of the fun of playing an RPG is going through the game without any help and figuring out things for your self not to be told what to do. I also feel kind of really unhappy like I'm doing something wrong when I really just can't figure something out and have to turn to an FAQ for help. Especially if it was something obvious. For example, while playing Final Fantasy XII in order to enter this certain city I had to summon belias and it opened the door. There were no clues at all for that. Also before that there were these little like huts that when the character moved around one of the entrances showed an illusion of a forest and you had to walk through there. Once the player did that nothing happened. The player had to go to 3 or 4 other huts and do the same thing before arriving at that door which would just appear out of nowhere and the player had to summon belias to open the door. I would have never figured that out. But I'm getting a little off topic here. I've felt I guess so unhappy and pissed at certain games so much that I've started them over just to go through the parts I did look for help for without it. I guess if someone is going through the game a second playthrough or trying to complete everything in the game thats different, but generally I really dislike using any type of guide for RPG's in general and stuff

while playing Final Fantasy XII in order to enter this certain city I had to summon belias and it opened the door. There were no clues at all for that.

There was a poem kinda thing talking about a giant to open the door as I recall actually.

I think the best FAQs/guides are the non-spoiler ones that just give out the solutions to moments like the one you pointed where people get stuck. It's really not fun when you missed something (or the game is just being unclear) and you end up stuck.

while playing Final Fantasy XII in order to enter this certain city I had to summon belias and it opened the door. There were no clues at all for that.

There was a poem kinda thing talking about a giant to open the door as I recall actually.

I think the best FAQs/guides are the non-spoiler ones that just give out the solutions to moments like the one you pointed where people get stuck. It's really not fun when you missed something (or the game is just being unclear) and you end up stuck.

Plus, I recall there being markings on the all of two doors that pretty clearly indicated the need to use Velius Belias to open them.

Besides, those are, by far and away, the least Guide Dammit moments in the game that was chock full of them.

I got a lot to fit into my life these days, games are a "backseat priority" (meaning, I gotta focus on school, work, and hobbies, and while gaming is completely unnecessary to those, I *love* gaming -- so I make time for it). I don't have time to be stuck on puzzles for like a half hour, ain't nobody got TIME for that, so I use a FAQ when things aren't obvious or really random sidequests or if a game doesn't really explain what to do next very well.

Or if I just don't care. If the game is average but I wanna get through it (i.e., Ni no Kuni), then I'll use a FAQ because the game is boring me and I just wanna know how to move on.

I feel no shame in using a guide if I am trying to get 100% in a game and don't feel like wasting my time hunting for something down(which is most games for me). Even when I don't use a guide, I still tend to skim a game's message boards for any easily missable stuff. Actually about the only time I don't have an FAQ open for quick reference is if the game is too new to have one(which with my game backlog at the moment rarely happens). I just don't have the time to mess around like I did during college and law school. >.>

My only issue was back in the day when some games had secrets so obscure that it felt like their sole existing purpose was to sell official strategy guides.

I'm not above using a GameShark if, say, I'm underleveled for a boss fight and don't feel like grinding and just want to move on with the story.

With graphic adventures and such, I like to try and figure out puzzles on my own, but sometimes I get stumped after X amount of tries. I wish I could say I was l33t enough to do Grim Fandango's crane puzzle on my own, but I had to use a guide for that one.

I prefer to do as I much as I can myself, but when there's games like The Last Remnant, which is a mess of unexplained game mechanics, an obscure crafting system, missable content and frequent points of no return, using a guide is the only option. I'm playing it now and I probably would have missed about a third of the game if I hadn't been consulting the wiki regularly.

Also, after Valkyrie Profile I learnt to hate multiple endings where there's a bad ending which is little more than cut to the credits, so now I look up the requirements in advance.

Wow....didn't expect so many people that were all for using guides. I mean playing a second playthrough or trying to 100% a game is one thing but just going through a game for a first playthrough is different in my opinion I don't know I guess that's just how I feel about that

One thing I always use guides for? Idea Factory games. If you don't do everything exactly right, you get the crappy ending, and most of their games have no hints whatsoever towards what to do. Which is annoying, because it there's one thing Idea Factory is normally good at, it's story.

If it is a game like Valkyrie Profile or Castlevania where there's multiple endings that you have to do certain things in the game to get certain endings then I will look. Otherwise, I only look if I am truly stuck and just want to get on with the game.

I don't usually use them, but if there's a game I just want to get through just to see the story, then I'll use a FAQ. I used one for Innocent PSP because I didn't want to bother with figuring out which Persona I should use throughout the game. I wanted to get it over with as fast as possible, and the guide told me which Persona to summon and when. I finished the game in half the time and it enjoyed it much more.

Besides situations like that, I'll only use them when I'm stumped or for really obscure side quests that I could never have figured out on my own.

I got a lot to fit into my life these days, games are a "backseat priority" (meaning, I gotta focus on school, work, and hobbies, and while gaming is completely unnecessary to those, I *love* gaming -- so I make time for it). I don't have time to be stuck on puzzles for like a half hour, ain't nobody got TIME for that, so I use a FAQ when things aren't obvious or really random sidequests or if a game doesn't really explain what to do next very well.

Or if I just don't care. If the game is average but I wanna get through it (i.e., Ni no Kuni), then I'll use a FAQ because the game is boring me and I just wanna know how to move on.

THIS. Except substitute "Home/Wife/kid" for school. I will certainly always try to solve things on my own for a little while, but no way am I taking too much of my precious time being stuck in a video game. I check the guide to get un-stuck, then move on. I AM a little baffled by people who use guides for the entire game, or to find every single secret. Getting your Platinum only by rigorously following a guide the whole time kind of makes it someone else's accomplishment, doesn't it? I've never gotten a Plat in my life, but I know I wouldn't feel all that great about getting one that way. But what the heck do I know?